Forum Flash | Remember the teachers

Special education teacher Paula Fauble and three other teachers tossed pillows on top of students in a 3-foot-by-10-foot hallway and then laid across them to protect the kids from debris as the tornado ripped through the Briarwood Elementary in Moore, Okla.

Just a 1.8-mile drive away - an even shorter dash for a tornado - third-grade teacher Jennifer Doan, eight weeks pregnant, huddled at Plaza Towers Elementary holding two students tight to her as the walls fell in around her.

In the same building, in a school bathroom, sixth-grade teacher Rhonda Crosswhite shoved her students into a stall and then lay down to shield them against the wreckage that was swirling around.

No students died at Briarwood and seven died at Plaza Towers, but had it not been for the heroic actions of the teachers, the death toll would likely have been much worse.

Just like the teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary who placed themselves between their students and a deranged gunman, the teachers were more concerned about the children than they were about their own safety.

We should remember this as our politicians vote to reduce funding to schools, and even worse, demagogue the teachers and the unions that represent them in efforts to score cheap political points.

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Forum Flash | Remember the teachers

Special education teacher Paula Fauble and three other teachers tossed pillows on top of students in a 3-foot-by-10-foot hallway and then laid across them to protect the kids from debris as the